Rochester teenager battles rare form of cancer

A large lump on the side of Alyssa Kukla’s neck was the first sign that something was wrong for the 13-year-old Rochester resident.

“They initially thought it was just her body fighting off a virus,” Teri Kukla, Alyssa’s mother, told Beaumont Health System media staff.

When the lump grew, Alyssa’s parents brought her to Beaumont Children’s Hospital in Royal Oak for testing.

Beaumont pediatric surgeon Begum Akay, M.D., asked the family to come to her office that night when the results came in.

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Alyssa was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

Thyroid cancer is a rare form of cancer that affects less than two percent of children. The American Cancer Society estimates 62,980 new cases of thyroid cancer will surface in 2014 — 47,790 in women and 15,190 in men — with nearly 2,000 deaths. Two out of three of those afflicted will be under the age of 55.

The thyroid produces hormones that help to regulate a person’s metabolism and control how the body uses calcium.

“It was probably the scariest moment I have ever had,” Teri Kukla said. “I wished that it had been me instead. No one should have to go through something like that, especially not a child.”

“That’s probably one of the hardest parts for me … just being a man and not being able to do anything,” said Michael Kukla, Alyssa’s father. “Alyssa’s not upset and she’s the one that’s going through it and going through the surgery. As her father, I think, all I can do is be supportive.”

Alyssa and her parents said Dr. Akay’s personality and concern about her patients made it easier to cope with the cancer diagnosis.

“She’s really nice and I really like her,” Alyssa Kukla said. “She’s one of my favorite doctors … Honestly, I don’t feel all that scared. I’m just trying to get it over with.”

Teri Kukla added that Dr. Akay went above and beyond to assure that Alyssa and the family were comfortable and felt taken care of.

Dr. Akay gave the Kuklas her cell phone number and email address — like she does with other patients — because she wants to be accessible to them, according to Beaumont Health System.

“Being a pediatric surgeon is a little bit different than being an adult surgeon,” Akay told Beaumont’s media staff. “You’re not just taking care of the child. You’re taking care of the mother and the father and the aunt and the uncle and the grandparents. It’s really important for me to have close relationships with the families because they’re instilling all of their trust in me to take care of their child.”

Dr. Akay and her team removed nearly all of the disease in Alyssa’s neck in February, including her entire thyroid gland and about 50 lymph nodes.

Alyssa came back to Beaumont Children’s Hospital several months later to have more of the cancer removed.

“I’ve tried so hard to keep her sheltered and keep her protected from things that the outside world can harm her with,” said Teri Kukla. “This is something that just spontaneously rose up within her. You can’t protect your child from that. That was the hardest thing.”

The surgery went well, according to Beaumont Health System, and Alyssa said she’s proud to call herself a cancer survivor.

“It showed me that I’m braver than I thought I was,” she said. “I used to think I was so weak. But, this shows me I’m braver than I thought I was.”